Dr. Alison Grizzle is the founder of Clearview Strategy Partners and serves as director of organizational development for Starnes Media. Alison leads the Starnes Media team in the creation of best-practice organizational processes and detailed project management standards, both internally and for clients. Alison works with clients in various industries facilitating conversations among members of leadership around company vision, strategy and performance evaluation. In a 19-year career, she has accomplishments in leadership development, employee engagement, team dynamics, consensus building, goal setting, strategic planning and talent development.

Alison, the 2013-2014 Alabama Teacher of the Year, is a graduate of both Leadership Birmingham and Momentum Women’s Leadership. Alison serves on several non-profit boards that focus on creating opportunities for youth in the Birmingham area – Birmingham Education Foundation, Youth Serve and Girls Inc. of Central Alabama.

Why have you decided to serve as a Torchbearer for the JLB?I have decided to serve as a 2018 Torchbearer for the JLB because I see the importance of consolidated efforts. We have many great non-profit organizations in Birmingham and a very philanthropic community. When these non-profit organizations are able to pool resources and efforts to meet a common goal, great things happen. This is evident in initiatives such as Bold Goals with United Way and One Place.

I want to help bring attention to the great work of One Place. Navigating a complicated system of disconnected services in a time of trauma can be not only overwhelming but also completely defeating. For some people at their most fragile point in time, it can be too much to try and locate all of the needed services, while retelling the most horrific story over and over again. Each moment, each service, each meeting requires a woman to re-live the pain. One Place removes the barriers and helps victims get the help that they need by providing a team of professionals in one place ready to serve victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

What/who inspires you to be a Light in our community?Ann Florie, Executive Director of Leadership Birmingham, inspires me to be a Light in our community. Her work on many great teams and boards over the years has helped to move Birmingham forward. Each year she inspires a new class of Leadership Birmingham to have tough conversations about the current and future state of the city. Last year one-fifth of the JLB torchbearers were from the class of 2014, and this year we seem to have the same level of representation. Ann is a connector and an influencer in the city. She has touched the lives of many and encourages leaders throughout the city to be better, give more, and do more.